A busy semester

Well what can I say? Sorry it's been so long. It's been a very busy first semester.

As I wrote earlier, this year I'm teaching Year 11 and 12 Maths A, and Year 10, 11 and 12 Physics. The Physics classes are going much better this year, since it's now my second time around—especially since the start of term two (I only started teaching Year 12 Physics in term two last year). My revised and extended Year 10 Physics unit is definitely an improvement. I'm even collecting and marking the assignments electronically now. I wonder if I can figure out a way to get them to do their exams online too…?

I am missing the Year 10 Prep Maths A, though.

Other than that, I enjoyed my lecturing at CHC, although it was a lot of work. That's finished now; I didn't even have to create a supplementary exam! (Which is not the same as saying that all the students passed…)

So far this semester has been much less stressful. I hope it stays that way.

Classes for 2011

… and so begins the school year for 2011.

This year I am teaching Physics in Years 10 through 12 (well, the Physics unit of Science in year 10), Maths A in Years 11 and 12, and Christian Foundations in Year 12. This is a lovely mix, to which I would only for preference have added Year 10 Maths, but that's on at the same time as Year 12 Physics, so I can't (and besides, then I'd be teaching far too much!).

I have rewritten the Year 10 Physics unit because the new timetable allocates more time to Science in Year 10 than last year, and also every student in Year 10 will this year have a laptop with access to the school network. This is a good thing, because it means (a) I can set up a “virtual classroom” with all the planning, notes, worksheets and other resources the students need, and (b) I can run more interesting software-based interactive activities during lessons. But of course, the students won't actually receive their laptops until week 4! So now I've had to make copies of a whole lot of things for them for the next few weeks. Sigh.

The new timetable has only 60 and 90 minute lessons for Years 9-12, where last year it was a mix of 40, 45 and 90. Longer lessons for the older students is a really good thing!

My Year 12 classes are lovely—because they're the same classes I had in Year 11 last year. My Year 11 Maths A class is too big. Poor things, they're seeing my strict and grumpy side. I have little choice, given the number of students. Ah well, learning a little self-discipline now will only help them in the future.

And let me just say (along, I think, with most school teachers in Australia) how much I appreciated having the Australia Day holiday in the middle of the first week.

Thanks letter to MECC

Functions Manager
Mackay Entertainment Convention Centre
 

Dear Sir/Madam,

It brings me great pleasure to finally find time to write in regard to a wonderful evening I spent at MECC late last year. I am a past teacher of Mackay Christian College, and I attended the College’s Year 12 Graduation function at MECC on Thursday 18 November 2010.

I have special dietary needs and I know many people have difficulty catering for me. However I am happy to say that your staff met my needs very well. The curry for the main course was fabulous, spicy but not too hot, and the white cake for dessert was delicious and presented in a way I could not possibly have done myself.

Please pass on my compliments and thanks to those involved in preparing and presenting my meal. I look forward to returning to MECC for other functions in the future.

Yours faithfully,

Ian Bailey-Mortimer

Thanks letter to Sirromet

Functions Manager
Sirromet Wines Pty Ltd

Dear Sir/Madam,

It brings me pleasure to finally find time to write in regard to a wonderful evening I spent at Sirromet late last year. I am a teacher at Calvary Christian College, and I attended the College’s Year 12 Formal function at Sirromet on Tuesday 16 November 2010.

I have special dietary needs and I know many people have difficulty catering for me. However I am happy to say that your staff met my needs very well. My main course of pasta and asparagus was delicious, and the sorbet for dessert was a lovely way to finish the meal.

Please pass on my compliments and thanks to those involved in preparing and presenting my meal. I look forward to returning to Sirromet for other functions in the future.

Yours faithfully,

Ian Bailey-Mortimer

Not living next to the school

Well, I think it has been a successful year. Not living next to the school this year has meant that I have been much better able to separate my work and home life. I didn't go to school on the weekend even once! :-)

(Quite a change from when we were in Mackay, living 10m from the staffroom over the back fence…)

Year 12 Graduations

Well it was a busy week for me.

Monday evening was awards night—at the same place (Garden City Church, now known as Hillsong) as my own school awards nights were held so many years ago.

Tuesday evening was the year 12 formal dinner at Sirromet. My trepidation about their catering (triggered in part by a phone call from them on Monday querying what I actually could eat) turned out to be entirely unnecessary: they fed me very well. I had a yummy pasta and asparagus main, and a berry sorbet for dessert. (A pleasant change from the usual fruit salad.)

But the night wasn't really about my food, of course. The year 12s looked fabulous, and it was good to be there to see them having fun at the end of their schooling years. Not too many speeches, just excitement and joy and a good time with music and dancing.

And then on Thursday evening was the year 12 graduation dinner for my former students in Mackay. So I flew there on Thursday afternoon for that, staying the night with friends (thanks Phil & Janine!) and flying back on Friday. It was so worthwhile. Such fun to walk in as the year 12s were standing up for a group photo, and get excited shouts and waves as they saw me. (Some of them knew I was coming, but most didn't.) So interesting to hear their stories from the last year and their plans for the next. So good to see them looking so fine and to be able to celebrate with them.

And again, my meal was delicious: a lovely curry, spicy but not too hot, and white cake for dessert. Turns out this particular meal was in fact cooked by one of my past students! Julie, thank you again for a fabulous meal, one of the best I've had at a formal function.

Then back to Brisbane on Friday. After school was the year 12 valedictory service: a few speeches, presentations, a tearful procession, and then afternoon tea.

Year 9 camp

Just got back from three days in the bush with seventeen year 9 boys (plus a year 12 mentor and two camp leaders). Can you imagine spending three days with a group of teenage boys and no showers?

It was actually quite fun. The camp was at Meebunn-bia (which means “in the company of an eagle”) near Rathdowney, and the place is run as an adventure camp. Our year 9 cohort was split into five groups (three of boys and two of girls). My group did quite a bit of hiking, as well as a hoop pine climb, belayed-climb-based obstacle course, high ropes courses and a 150 metre flying fox. Many of the boys found it quite challenging—facing their fears as much as the physical aspects. Camping overnight meant making tents out of two tarps and a rope between trees, and preparing and cooking dinner with food they'd carried up on their backs. Toilets were a mix of hole-in-the-ground and composting toilets.

It was good to see some of the boys really growing as they faced and overcame their fears.

Term 1 at a new school

Phew! Term 1 is finished.

My new school is quite similar to the one I left in Mackay: both Christian, about the same size, K-12. If anything, the students here are more obedient, although not necessarily less lazy.

I'm teaching Physics and Maths A in year 10 and 11, plus an odd mix of other things - year 9 ICT and Christian Foundations, and a year 7 PE class!

I'm not sure what else to talk about here, so feel free to ask questions…

Parting is such sweet sorrow…

I cried today.

I took a minute to tell a couple of students that I wouldn't be around next year. These are two who I've taught, tutored and encouraged since they were in Year 8 in my first year here at MCC. Two who have particularly taken to, and thrived under, my style of maths teaching. Two who I have had the privilege of watching grow and mature. I would so love to stay so I could see them continue to grow and flower into beautiful young ladies, as I'm sure they will over the next few years.

I wanted to let them know before they heard rumours—I'm sure there must be some floating around the school by now. All the staff know I'm going, thanks to a not-so-subtle hint from Craig at staff devotions on Monday. Many of them have children at the school.

I just wanted to let them hear it direct from me first. And after we talked about the situation, and I walked away heading back to the staff room… I cried.

I'll miss them. And many others besides.

Busy, busy, busy

Sorry, it's been a while since I posted here. That's because I've been quite busy. Since the end of Term 1 I've had to turn down four separate invitations to do more. I'd actually enjoy doing those things—coaching a Lego robotic soccer team, for instance. (That is, coaching the students programming the robots, not coaching the Lego robots!) But I just don't have time for anything else.

I'll try to find some time soon for more updates here, though.

Changing the subject

Well, Term 1 is over. *Phew*

Actually, the time seems to have passed much more quickly than usual. Perhaps I'm finally starting to get the hang of this teaching thing. My senior classes are fabulous. (Can't say the same for my year 9s though!)

Unfortunately, one of my favourite classes won't be mine to teach any more. Like last year, our two Maths B classes in year 11 have grown too small to justify keeping separate, especially since the Prevocational Maths class in year 11 is at 27 students and growing. So we'll combine the two Maths B classes and split up the Prevoc class instead.

Fortunately I get to teach Maths A. One of the Maths A teachers is going to take the new Prevoc class.

Open Day 2008

I didn't stay as long this year, but I did turn up (actually I had to anyway, I was giving out maps and prize draw forms from 4-5pm). I decided to try taking some video footage this time, with our new point-and-shoot camera, after being inspired by a recent Flickr Blog post. I even took it on one of the rides! I'm quite impressed by the way the fireworks came out.

Year 8 Camp

Last week (not the week just gone, which I started feeling ill and ended with no voice, but the week before: Monday 4th to Wednesday 6th August to be precise) I went on our school's Year 8 Camp. It was at Rowallan Park, just on the North-West outskirts of Mackay. The weather was perfect - cool but not too cold at night, and beautiful sunny days.

I saw a few clever T-shirts. Some students seemed to bring far too much - and some of their tents were huge! Fortunately nobody was without a tent to sleep in. (Except us teachers, but we had dorms well away from where the students were.)

Games and activities filled most of the day time. There were an incredible number of injuries, the first (a twisted ankle) within about 10 minutes of the start of the first activity.

The students' Year 11 mentors dropped in on Tuesday, and set up an awesome obstacle course. Even the teachers enjoyed it! But it certainly involved a lot of mud!

And of course no camp is complete without a campfire!

Before the campfire, the students were given a ‘survivor’ activity in which they had to prepare their own meal. But first they had to hunt for some slips of paper with food items written on them, which they could exchange for pieces of food. I was in charge of dispensing the food. My favourite moment was when one group handed me two bits of paper labelled “onion”. I gave them a piece of onion. They complained, “But that's only one piece, not two.” So I took the piece back, chopped it in half, and gave it back to them again, saying, “There you go, now it's two!”

Our Year 8 students really need to learn to look after their own stuff, though. They kept leaving personal items lying around. They just have no idea what can happen if they're not careful…


(I would upload a whole lot more photos from camp—some lovely portraits of a few of my students, for example—but they all have students in them, whose images I may not post here. Sorry.)

I am not a film critic - honest!

Hmm, this blog is starting to look like a movie review site—or at least, like I do nothing but sit around watching movies. Ah well, year 8 camp for three days starting tomorrow, so that should spice things up a bit…

QAMTAC '08

Last weekend (actually Thursday-Saturday) was the annual conference of the Queensland Association of Maths Teachers. I flew down to Brisbane to attend, missing the athletics carnival on the last two days of term.

The conference was held at UQ, based mainly in the Hawken Engineering building. The conference theme was “My Way or the Highway: Reflections on the Distance Travelled in Mathematics Education”. As well as three interesting keynote speeches, there were four elective sessions each day with no less than seven offerings each session—a real smorgasbord of workshops and seminars!

Casio offered us all a free graphics calculator! Not wanting to be out-done, TI began giving away their new multi-line scientific calculator too.

But for me the highlight of the conference was definitely the dinner on Friday night. This was in the Burke & Wills rooms at the Mercure in town. Not only did the chef feed me very well, it was a great night of fun and friends (my cold notwithstanding; I picked up a cold somewhere between Mackay and Brisbane, and it was fairly chilly, so by Saturday I was feeling rather unwell). And the band, made up of conference delegates, were simply fantastic! They played and sang beautifully.

More photos on Flickr.

Ready for Term 2. Bring it on!

Well it's been a good break: relaxing, but also productive. I've planned out most of my subjects all the way to the end of the term, and prepared most of the extra things I had in mind.

Yesterday night our billet arrived. Suzy is studying Education at CHC, and is here to do her first teaching prac in grade 2. She'll be staying with us for the next four weeks—unless my vegan cookery kills her first!

End of Term 1

*Phew*! Made it to the end of term 1. Much easier than last year, but still hard work.

The last day of term 1 was the cross country. I enjoyed running the course; the plan was I'd run just a quarter, in a relay of teachers in my house, but by the end I'd done the whole course. (They even gave me a point for my house!)

Now I get two weeks without students. I have three main jobs to do in that time, to prepare for what's ahead. One of those things is to get ready for my maths enrichment classes. Yes, I've volunteered for more work—because nobody else around here is doing it, and it really does need to be done. I will have weekly after-school meetings with half a dozen of our best maths students from years 8, 9 and 10. I will be introducing them to some interesting ideas from the rich history of mathematics, and challenging them with some tricky problem solving activities.

Transport providers in Mackay

What is it with the transport companies around here?

Last year when I took my year 12 maths class ten-pin bowling, the maxi-taxi didn't show up—well, actually, they did, after we'd already waited almost an hour, given up and made other arrangements. (They have a reputation for being late, apparently.)

Yesterday when I had 25 students at Slade Point for a chess competition, our bus home didn't arrive. Eventually, after a couple of phone calls, they sent us another bus. The replacement bus arrived at 3pm (and we're supposed to be back at school well before 3pm!), and the driver tells me they “had some trouble with the other driver”.

Mackay floods

Okay, I suppose it's time I made a blog entry about the flood, eh?

Friday morning about 3-4am it started bucketing down. We could barely get to sleep for the sound of the rain. The view at dawn was bleak and wet.




Apparently at 5:30am there was still no water in the classrooms at the school. By 8am it was over a metre deep. It peaked at around 9am. Looking through the small gap left in the window of my usual classroom and seeing the plastic furniture floating around was quite an experience!




The floodwater rose visibly while we watched. In the space of 15 minutes we watched it move up a road sign. Before an hour was up, the sign was completely submerged.




We went for a short walk. At the end of our street we saw some drivers taking their cars where no small car was ever meant to go: through flood waters across the street. There were waves breaking against the kerb of the traffic island!




At the Gooseponds we found a raging torrent. Seriously, the speed of the current was pretty scary; it's normally a placid little lake. Usually you can walk along a concrete path underneath the Maplethorpe Bridge, but not today.




We lost power at around 10am. We got a little of it back in the late afternoon, and I mean exactly what I wrote: enough for the radio to play, but not enough for it to light up its display; enough for precisely one of our inside lights, but not enough for the fridge, phone, microwave, toaster or anything else. Finally at around 8pm we got full power back.

More rain fell overnight, but not nearly as much as on Friday morning. Apparently Mackay received the equivalent of about a third of the usual annual rainfall in the space of 6 hours! When I went to the school this morning, the floodwater was still deep over the oval and rugby fields, but was no longer in the classrooms. I spent the afternoon at the school, helping with the clean-up. Sad sights abounded: ruined resources and waterlogged textbooks, filthy furniture, chipboard as soft as tissue paper… but by far the worst was these pianos:




Tomorrow, more cleaning up in the afternoon. Church in the morning—if we can get there.

By the way, you might also like to read Laetitia's blog about the flood, and there are more flood photos up on Flickr.

Year 12 camp

End of week two! Hoorah!

Last night I went out to the Year 12 camp—just visiting for the evening. The students have been there since Tuesday. They say it's been hot and sunny every day, pouring rain every night, and 100% muggy without a break. Certainly that's what I experienced: muggy and hot when I arrived, then soon after sundown a big storm blew in. The lightning was still flashing off the coast hours later while we were driving home.

My students were happy to see me there. As well as playing cricket and card games (and tricks), they insisted (but actually I didn't mind, it was quite fun!) I try the big swing. This was basically a rope contraption with a small seat. You sit on the seat, they winch you up to about 4-5m above the ground, then you pull a short rope and suddenly you're free-falling into a swooping swing. It was exciting! I was pleased I could enjoy it; I haven't been able to enjoy such things much since I had vertigo in 2001.